According to most labour surveys, around 20% of the UK population has some form of disability, yet only 4.4% of BBC staff are disabled, 2% at ITV, 1.8% at Sky and 1% at Channel 4.

The discrepancy comes in many forms. Disability is counted as a health problem that has adversely affected the individual's day-to-day life for a year and a day or more, and can include diabetes, chronic back pain and all forms of mental disability.

Hamida Ali, a senior diversity manager at the BBC, points out that around half the disabled workforce in the UK is unemployed. Not only this, but the figures for disabled staff at the BBC reflect those who have "self-declared" a disability; there may be others who are protected by the legislation but who don't define themselves as disabled and so wouldn't be reflected in the figures.

"A number of people would not describe themselves as disabled," she adds. "There is a massive taboo around it and disabled people are aware that people have massive assumptions and see them as less able. The politics of disability today also means that a lot of people do not see themselves as disabled even though they would be covered by anti-disability discrimination legislation."

This year the BBC announced a rise in the corporate target for disabled staff to 5.5% by 2012 - with a new goal of 4.5% for senior management positions within the same timeframe. Other channels are also keen to raise disabled staffing levels.

The initiative for increased representation both on- and offscreen has been helped by Talking Disability, the joint BBC and Channel 4 report published in January this year. Compiled by the research body Brand Democracy, it called for more disabled actors and for increased representation in programmes which were not necessarily about disability.

It also urged programme-makers to have fairer and more accurate portrayals, with disabled people depicted as neither necessarily unpleasant, dysfunctional or automatically saintly. The use of disability as sensationalist "freakery" in some programmes was also questioned in the report. In short, it was a call to fairly reflect a society where 11 million people are disabled.

The recent castings of disabled actors such as Cerrie Burnell as a regular host of CBeebies, Kelly-Marie Stewart in Hollyoaks, and actor David Proud, who has spina bifida and joined EastEnders in June 2009, were in the pipeline before these recommendations. Kitty McGeever who plays Lizzie Lakely in ITV1's Emmerdale is the first blind actress to be cast in a British soap. This December, Dancing on Wheels will see celebrities dancing with wheelchair users - following on from Britain's Missing Top Model last year.

For Alison Walsh, Channel 4's editorial manager for disability, Talking Disability was an important spur for the industry. "Before, disability used to be a shorthand for something negative and then suddenly the pendulum swung and disabled people were seen as incredibly saintly. As the report says, they need to be shown warts and all, as with Mikey [the blind Big Brother contestant] who told tasteless jokes and wasn't universally popular. We want to show disabled people in all situations, such as potential housebuyers in Location Location."

Ali is also proud of Extend, the BBC's work placement scheme for disabled people, which has been running for 12 years and recruited another 50 placements this year. This year nearly 70% of participants secured work at the BBC beyond their placement.

Walsh agrees that getting disabled people involved in her work is sometimes tough - of the 3,000 recent applicants for the Diversity Production Training scheme (now in its second year) around 300 were disabled people, with the rest coming from ethnic minority and other areas.

Sara Hanson, ITV's Talent and Diversity Manager, says thinking needs to reach beyond creating posts or work placements for disabled people - especially in a time of recession, when ITV and other commercial media companies are losing staff.

"There is a danger with schemes that you can generate newly qualified people and not have opportunities for them," she says. "Especially now with the recession there is a need to focus on the people who are already in the talent pool."

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: "Access to Work [a government scheme] has made it much easier for disabled people to get the help they need to find and retain work in the broadcasting and creative industries - including speeding up applications and providing essential equipment to freelancers.

"We have a team of bespoke advisers who have strong links with ITV and other broadcasters and have carried out visits to specific sets including Emmerdale and Hollyoaks to see how we can further help on the ground.

"There are many success stories of those who have benefited from Access to Work at ITV and we continue to build closer links through regular meetings and networking events."

"It is very important for any young person's career that they are free to go and work for other companies - indeed it's vital," adds Channel 4's Alison Walsh.

According to the BBC, the average claim under the scheme is between £100 and £200 per case. BBC diversity manager Sue Caro says: "A lot of disabled people say that technology can be the biggest obstacle to them. But it doesn't need to be this way - the BBC is committed to a range of policies which think about developing technology from inception to meet the needs of disabled members of the workforce. And for users, the BBC iPlayer is the first to have audio description on a catch-up service."

As for the current crop of disabled programming such as Radio 4's In Touch being more inclusive, and increased representation on mainstream programmes, TV executives involved in diversity believe that real change is happening.

Channel 4 has commissioned a six-part drama called Cast Offs, in which six disabled actors play characters marooned on a desert island. The first episode coincides with the CDN Diversity Awards tomorrow night. Each hour-long episode of the dramax, which is written by Jack Thorne, Tony Roache and Alex Bulmer, follows a character in their former and current life.

"Just look at a drama like the BBC's Coming Down the Mountain, which had as its central character a young man played by Tommy Jessop with Down's syndrome stealing the show," says Caro.

"The director said that Tommy had impressed him enormously because he was the only cast member who always knew all his lines. I expect that many of the crew working on that production will have had no previous experience of people with Down's syndrome and that they will have had their assumptions challenged. This is how cultures get changed."